Attorney General

Sentencing: Dangerous Driving

Julian Knight: To ask the Attorney General, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme in the context of the offence of causing death by dangerous driving.

Michael Tomlinson: Following last year’s increase in the maximum sentence, I recently appeared in person to argue the case of Luis Balcazar-Soto before the Court of Appeal. The Court agreed with my submissions that, pending new sentencing guidelines, judges should increase sentences imposed for the most serious such offences to reflect the increase in the maximum sentence. I welcome the Court’s guidance and its decision to increase this offender’s sentence from 9 years to 12 years’ imprisonment.

Crown Prosecution Service: Training

Julian Knight: To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to increase its number of legal trainees.

Michael Tomlinson: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) runs an award-winning and highly competitive legal trainee scheme that has seen hundres of trainees undertake a training contract and/or pupillage across England and Wales with the CPS since 2012.The CPS has extended its post graduate qualification requirements, to include not only the LPC and Bar Qualification, but the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination, which opens a career in law to a broader and more diverse audience.

Crime: Victims

Julian Knight: To ask the Attorney General, what steps her Department is taking to improve the services provided by her Office and its superintended agencies to victims of crime.

Michael Tomlinson: Improving the experience of victims is a priority for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and is an important part of building public confidence. In 2021, the CPS commissioned independent research to better understand victims’ needs and have since committed to transforming the service they provide to every victim. The CPS also published its commitment to transform how they communicate with victims under a long-term Victim Transformation Programme, and is now considering detailed design options for what a new service for victims could look like. The Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) work in supporting victims and witnesses has been positively recognised in two HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) inspection reports in the past two years. The 2022 report specifically praised the positive working relationships of the Victim and Witness Care Team with case teams, which have resulted in a better understanding across the SFO of how the organisation can best consider the needs of victims.

Department of Health and Social Care

Health Services: Standards

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which consultations published by their Department are awaiting a response; and when each of those responses (a) were initially planned to and (b) will be published.

Will Quince: Policy teams across the Department consult regularly during the policy development and implementation cycle. Information is available on GOV.UK about all open and closed consultations published by the Department, including the closing date for open consultations and, where available, the Government's response. The Cabinet Office has published best practice ‘consultation principles’ for Government departments.

NHS: Microsoft

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Microsoft has been compliant with the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria since it first provided its Teams software to the NHS in 2021.

Will Quince: Digital Technology Assessment Criteria was launched in February 2021. We therefore do not believe that an assessment was made by NHS Digital when contracting with Microsoft against the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria as it was in consultation phase. National Health Service organisations may have chosen to use Microsoft Teams locally prior to 2021.

Nurses: Pay

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2007 to Question 125276, on Nurses: Pay, if he will publish a version of the table in that Answer for the years 1992-93 to 2021-22.

Will Quince: The following table shows pay recommendations of the review body for nursing and other health professions for qualified nurses (known as the National Health Service Pay Review Body (PRB) since 2004), the pay uplift awarded in each year and the change in average qualified nurses' earnings per head. Main nursing and other health professional review body recommendationPay Uplift AwardedNurse & Health Visitor - Change in Earnings per Person (1) (2)1992/936.3%6.3%N/A1993/941.5%1.5%N/A1994/953.0%3.0%N/A1995/96 (3)1% + Local Element1% + Local ElementN/A1996/97 (4)2% + Local Element2% + Local ElementN/A1997/98*3.3%2.4%N/A1998/99*3.8%2.6%1.0%1999/004.7%4.7%6.2%2000/013.4%3.4%4.9%2001/023.7%3.7%5.6%2002/033.6%3.6%3.8%2003/043.2%3.2%2.4%2004/053.2%3.2%6.1%2005/063.2%3.2%4.2%2006/072.5%2.5%5.2%2007/08*2.5%1.9%4.7%2008/093-Year Agenda for Change Pay and Contract Reform Agreement2.8%3.2%2009/103-Year Agenda for Change Pay and Contract Reform Agreement2.4%3.4%2010/113-Year Agenda for Change Pay and Contract Reform Agreement2.3%3.0%2011/12 (5)0.0% - public sector pay freeze0.0%1.0%2012/13 (6)0.0% - public sector pay freeze0.0%0.8%2013/141.0% - public sector pay policy1.0%0.8%2014/150.0% - public sector pay policy0.0%0.5%2015/161.0% - public sector pay policy1.0%0.4%2016/171.0% - public sector pay policy1.0%0.7%2017/181.0% - public sector pay policy1.0%1.1%2018/193-Year Agenda for Change Pay and Contract Reform Agreement2.5%2.5%2019/203-Year Agenda for Change Pay and Contract Reform Agreement3.2%3.3%2020/213-Year Agenda for Change Pay and Contract Reform Agreement3.1%3.4%2021/22 (7)3.0%4.0%3.8% Source: Earnings calculations from 2008 come from NHS England Earnings Statistics: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-staff-earnings-estimates. To include both trusts & support organisations these are weighted by Headcount from NHS Workforce Statistics. Core recommendations are from the annual PRB reports.Impact for Nurses (from 2009/10) are Departmental calculations weighted by Headcount across by points. This can make a difference when there is not a uniform pay award, for example, in 2022/23 the value of £1,400 is different for different points.The data for 2006/07 and earlier is replicated from the answer to the previous question.Notes:* In 1997/98, 1998/99 and 2007/08 pay awards were staged.Prior to introduction of Agenda for Change contract annual pay awards may have included an element determined at local level.Pay Uplift Awarded does not include any non-consolidated pay.Pay Uplift Awarded from 2009/10 onwards indicate impact on basic pay, weighted by headcount.Between 2008/09 and 2010/11 and between 2018/19 and 2020/21 a multi-year pay agreement was in place for Agenda for Change which meant there were no PRB new PRB pay recommendationsDifference between change in earnings and change in payscales may be caused by factors including pay drift, pay reform and changes to skill mix.Change in average earnings only available from 1997/98Earnings change since 2006/07 based on NHS Earnings StatisticsAssumed average of the award rangeAssumed 1pc higher than the previous yearIn 2011/12 a £250 increase was applied to pay points below £21,000. Pay Points above £21,000 were frozenIn 2012/13 a £250 increase was applied to pay points below £21,000. Pay Points above £21,000 were frozen2021/22 includes the impact of transition to new pay structures from 3-year Agenda for Change pay and contract reform agreement.

NHS: ICT

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recourse is available for patients whose data may not have been processed or controlled in a safe and secure fashion because the data was held by companies who were not compliant with the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria after April 2022.

Will Quince: The Digital Technology Assessment Criteria requires National Health Service organisations to ensure that information governance arrangements are appropriate for technologies that are deployed within the NHS.The organisations deploying and providing the technology are required to determine the data controller and processor arrangements, communicate this through a Privacy Notice, put in place a Data Processing Agreement and ensure the adequacy of security measures.If patients are concerned that their data has not been handled in accordance with legislation and/or NHS standards then they are able to raise a complaint with their NHS service provider and subsequently the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Patients are also able to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office, as the regulator for data protection and information rights law. Any recourse would be situation-dependent.

Health Services: Research

Nick Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many projects his Department is funding for research into (a) male and (b) female health; and what the cost of those programmes has been in the latest period for which data is available.

Will Quince: The National Institute for Health and Care Research welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including men’s health and women’s health issues. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Isotretinoin: Reviews

Andrew Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency review into the use of Roaccutane will be (a) concluded and (b) published.

Will Quince: An Expert Working Group has reviewed the available evidence relating to isotretinoin (Roaccutane). We expect the report to be published shortly.

Health Services: Finance

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of annual expenditure by (a) his Department and (b) the NHS is used to fund frontline services.

Will Quince: In 2022/23, funding for Departmental and system administration costs will be £3.3 billion, representing 1.9% of the Department’s Revenue Departmental Expenditure Limit (RDEL) of £176.1 billion. The rest of this RDEL funding is allocated to NHS England, other arm’s-length bodies and other Departmentally-managed programme budgets for frontline spending.

Diagnosis: Staff

Sir Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the terms of reference are for the joint NHS and Health Education England diagnostic workforce board; whether there is an imaging subgroup of the board; what role the diagnostic workforce board has had in shaping the NHS long-term workforce plan; and what role the board will have in the implementation of the NHS long-term workforce plan.

Will Quince: A copy of the Terms of Reference for the joint NHS England and Health Education England Diagnostic Workforce Board is attached. There is an imaging workforce sub-group of this board.Individual members of the Diagnostic Workforce Board have had an opportunity to feed into the development of the Long Term Workforce Plan for the National Health Service at appropriate stages and in the capacity of their roles. In line with the Terms of Reference, the board will have a role in supporting implementation of the workforce plan.Attachment (pdf, 161.7KB)

Health Services: Consultants

Ed Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much (a) NHS England, (b) Health Education England and (c) NHS Digital spent on consultancy work on the organisational merger and headcount reduction programme; how much NHS England (i) has spent and (ii) plans to spend under its contract with PA Consulting; what the length is of the contract between NHS England and PA Consulting; how much Health Education England (A) has spent and (B) plans to spend under its contract with KPMG; what the length is of the contract between Health Education England and KPMG; and with reference to the Health Service Journal article entitled McKinsey wins £1m contract to devise new NHSE data model, published on 10 February 2023, what the value was of work contracted by NHS England has with McKinsey outside of the contract in place between December 2022 and March 2023.

Will Quince: Contract notices are published on Contracts Finder, which is available at the following link:www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/These notices include details on the length and value of contracts. All contracts were awarded via an open and fair process through established procurement frameworks.Consultancy work on the organisational merger and headcount reduction programme will support the organisation in finalising its design and delivering changes to NHS England’s ways of working and shape that save up to £400 million each year.

Department for Business and Trade

Business: Regulation

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress her Department has made on developing proposals to replace the Business Impact Target set out in the Deregulation Target 2015.

Kevin Hollinrake: We plan to replace the current better regulation framework, which is underpinned by the statutory Business Impact Target, with a reformed better regulation framework. This will be aligned with our principles for regulation as set out in “The Benefits of Brexit”.We are finalising the details of these reforms, which we intend to implement following the repeal of the Business Impact Target via the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Business: Regulation

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness with which regulators have complied with the duty to promote growth in the Deregulation Act 2015.

Kevin Hollinrake: Since it came into effect, the growth duty requires regulators to have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth, alongside the delivery of protections set out in relevant legislation. Guidance has been produced to assist regulators in fulfilling this responsibility, both at a strategic and operational level, including the proper consideration that must be made before allocating resources, setting enforcement policies, and making sanctioning decisions.In the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced that the government’s new Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, will oversee a review of the regulator growth duty.

Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner: Public Appointments

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the vacancy for the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner post.

Kevin Hollinrake: Since the recent machinery of Government change in February 2023, there have been no such discussions.